So I was watching The Chew yesterday and Michael Symon and Mario Batali were talking about times they've had to throw people out of their restaurants. And they both said, hands down without out a doubt, if you disrespected the staff, if you were rude to the servers or cursed at them, they'd throw you out of their restaurant without a seconds hesitation. Both said they have done it before and they'll do it again, they don't tolerate people disrespecting their staff.

It made me really want to find and eat at one of their restaurants! Anytime management backs up employees, especially in service industries, I get all giddy inside.

This should be true for other places besides restaurants. Disrespectful behavior by a customer should not be rewarded.

Last month, DH, DS and I went to a Florida chain restaurant (TooJays). It was breakfast/brunch time and two men were sitting across the way, repeatedly yelling profanities on their cell phones. They were roaring drunk at 10 AM and were continuing to order beer. DH finally grabbed a manager and mentioned the language was not appropriate for the family restaurant and they were to the point of being loud and belligerent to their server as well as other diners. They stopped serving them alcohol and brought their check to them, but it took the men at least 30 minutes to leave. I was scared they were going to drive.

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ďAll that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."-J.R.R Tolkien

For Christmas, my parents told me they would help me buy the flatware set I've had my eye on, so I went home and ordered it (on sale and with an additional coupon code - hooray!). It included 12 place settings and three different hostess/completer sets for a total of 68 pieces

When it got to my house, I was so excited that I pulled it all out and stacked it up by type and then sorted it back out by place-setting (I know, I'm a nerd ) and discovered that I had 13 salad forks and 11 dinner forks. One of my place settings had a second salad fork instead of the dinner fork.

I packed up that place setting and got on their website to figure out how to do an exchange, but when I contacted customer support and explained the issue, they told me to keep the wrong place setting and they would mail me another on as a replacement, free of charge! I'm so impressed by how they handled this situation!

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"The trouble with quotes on the Internet is that you never know if they are genuine" - Abraham Lincoln

I'm going to put in a good word for Burpee Seeds. Recently, I ordered their XL tomato cages to add to my tomato cage collection. When the box came, I thought it was a little shorter than I remembered. Checked, and sure enough, it was the regular tomato cages, not the taller XL. Called the 800 number on the invoice. The nice lady asked me to put the box out on the porch; they would have UPS pick it up and stick the mailing label on it. Meanwhile, they sent out the replacement cages. The box was picked up Tuesday. The new cages were delivered yesterday.

Also, I've been experimenting with the new grafted tomato plants with very mixed success. Out of the three companies that I've ordered from, Burpee is the only one whose plants arrived in good shape. The other two batches were sad, wilted things that required two or three weeks of nursing to bring back to life (I was told by one of the companies that grafted tomatoes don't travel well.) Still didn't get many tomatoes off of them, but it isn't Burpee's fault that deer chewed on them.

DH ordered a DC-56 hard floor cleaner before Christmas from an E-Bay seller. It finally arrived two weeks later, in a box that had been torn, then taped back together. The poor box looked like it'd bounced around like a Samsonite suitcase. When we opened it, we found that we were missing the crevice tool, probably through the gaping hole in the box's bottom.

DH called Dyson to register the cleaner. When he mentioned that we were missing the tool, the representative sent us one, free of charge. Rep also sent us extra wet pads. Dyson will be our vacuum brand from here on out - can't recommend them enough.

I have a new one; it's an online company called Cartridges and more. They sell cartridges for Cricut cutting machines.

Last spring I placed an order for 2 cartridges that never came. At the time we were having issues with the post office, and a lot of our mail was actually returned to sender instead of being delivered. There was a lot of really important stuff that went missing, and my cartridge order was a low priority for me. Eventually I forgot all about it. Then about a week ago, I remembered I'd never actually received my order. So I sent an email explaining what had happened, apologizing for my delay and asking if they could do anything about it. I knew it was my own dang fault, and that the issue was not their fault at all, and that it had been a really long time ago. So I pretty much expected an apologetic response, but thought I should at least check.

I got an email back saying that one of the cartridges I had ordered (about $18) was no longer carried, but I should look around and pick another cartridge up to $25, and they would ship my order as soon as I replied. True to their word, my order shipped the same day I responded and it got to me in about 3 days.

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In the United States today, there is a pervasive tendency to treat children as adults, and adults as children. The options of children are thus steadily expanded, while those of adults are progressively constricted. The result is unruly children and childish adults. ~Thomas Szasz

DH and I went to our favorite fine dining steakhouse for dinner last night to celebrate my birthday early.

We were seated promptly, served as VIPs, and treated to an excellent meal as usual. There was another couple near us who were unhappyTM. About everything. Heck, the lady complained about the distance from the bathrooms to the area where we were seated. (They are less than 25 yards away.) The manager, who we are friends with, put on the charm and took care of them, but it reminded DH and I why we are glad to be out of that business.

The couple ordered vanilla ice cream with cinnamon sprinkled on top for dessert. Which they got. Then they complained the ice cream had too much cinnamon.

We toasted their departure and enjoyed our meals.

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ďAll that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."-J.R.R Tolkien

When I first got told to start testing my blood sugar I had a very hard time getting the knack of getting the testing solution onto the test strip to calibrate. I had to call for help. They sent me free test strips (which are pricy) for my troubles without my even asking.

Apple - Long, long ago, in a place far away, I won a gift card to Best Buy. I bought my first iPod. It was a 4GB iPod mini in pink. I used it for 6 years (until the hard drive started clicking), then bought a 16GB iPod nano to replace it (in red). Last summer, at some point, I lost the red one. I just ordered a purple one to replace it.

I bought DH and DS iPod shuffles in 2008, then bought them Nanos in the past few years. DS' Nano developed a sticky power button and the screen started to reveal light on one side. I made a Genius bar appointment, and they replaced it, even though it was no longer under warranty. I love Apple.

T-Mobile - I bought DS a new phone, that uses a Micro SIM card instead of the standard size. I appreciate the matter of fact way T-Mobile copied and sold me the new one for a small amount without giving me grief for not purchasing the phone through them, like I have experienced with other carriers.

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ďAll that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."-J.R.R Tolkien

Apple - Long, long ago, in a place far away, I won a gift card to Best Buy. I bought my first iPod. It was a 4GB iPod mini in pink. I used it for 6 years (until the hard drive started clicking), then bought a 16GB iPod nano to replace it (in red). Last summer, at some point, I lost the red one. I just ordered a purple one to replace it.

I bought DH and DS iPod shuffles in 2008, then bought them Nanos in the past few years. DS' Nano developed a sticky power button and the screen started to reveal light on one side. I made a Genius bar appointment, and they replaced it, even though it was no longer under warranty. I love Apple.

T-Mobile - I bought DS a new phone, that uses a Micro SIM card instead of the standard size. I appreciate the matter of fact way T-Mobile copied and sold me the new one for a small amount without giving me grief for not purchasing the phone through them, like I have experienced with other carriers.

T-mobile is awesome at allowing people to use any phone that they want with their service. I'm not with them any more, but they would support phones that they didn't even sell if it meant keeping you as a customer.

Target. Despite the whole thing with credit cards, I still love shopping there.

Today I went in there hoping to get some leggings and I did find some for $8 a pair. And they fit. But even better, I found that my Cartwheel (an app that offers extra discounts on certain items) had a 15% discount on this specific brand of leggings and this was the last day it was offered so I added it.

Only I get up to the cash register and my stupid phone decides it doesn't want to load the barcode that will allow me to save $ on these. (It was running fine only a few moments before I walked up to the register) Now the cashier could have said 'Oh well" but she pulled out her phone, added the discount to her cartwheel offers and scanned the barcode so that I could get the discount. I thanked her profusely and paid up.

It was only a $2 and change discount but I thought it was so nice of her to do that so that I wouldn't have to miss out on the last day of the discount because my phone decided to be a turd.

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Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars. You have a right to be here. Be cheerful, strive to be happy. -Desiderata

TFOG Motorcyle Shop in Golden Colorado. Jim knows everything about bikes and is the only one I trust to work on my bike if I'm not working on it. My bike is still under warranty so I do take it to the dealership but it goes straight to Jim after so he can check their work (I've had two really bad experiences with dealership repairs and I'd rather not put my life in their hands).

The 9th Door is a tapas restaurant in downtown Denver. Amazing food and wonderful service.

The Rock Rest wing bar in Golden Colorado. Great dance floor and the wings are HUGE and tasty.

Quaker Steak and Lube in Westminster Colorado. Tues night is all you can eat wings so the boys are happy. We've always had a good experience and they quickly correct when we don't.

I have to disagree on Quaker Steak - DH & I went there once and the service was slow and clueless, and the food mediocre at best. I go across the highway to Rock Bottom - I've always had great service there, and now I go there often enough to know a chunk of the staff, so if I get someone on an off night, I know who to talk to and get it sorted. :-)

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What part of v_e = \sqrt{\frac{2GM}{r}} don't you understand? It's only rocket science!

"The problem with re-examining your brilliant ideas is that more often than not, you discover they are the intellectual equivalent of saying, 'Hold my beer and watch this!'" - Cindy Couture